According to the prior art, a weapon platform can be a vehicle on wheels or tracks on which is mounted a turret protecting the weapon and which is movable to traverse the weapon and carries an elevation axis. Thus, the orientation of the weapon in bearing and elevation is linked with the turret. However, this has serious disadvantages when it is desirable for the weapon to have a large elevation range of approximately -15.degree. to 85.degree. for a bearing range of 360.degree.. Under these conditions, it is necessary to have a very high turret for the weapon to be free at the rear of the superstructure of the carrying vehicle.
It is then possible to envisage a turretless carrying vehicle, whose external appearance has been modified in order to provide the gun crew with the protection provided by the turret. However, this has the serious disadvantage that the bearing mobility of the weapon is limited to that of the vehicle.
It is obvious that the known tracked and wheeled vehicles cannot operate like a turret even if they can pivot with a relatively small turning radius, as is the case more particularly with tracked vehicles. Thus, they are unable to bring about the bearing positioning of a weapon with the minimum required accuracy, particularly when it is necessary to fire at rapidly moving targets.